Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies Volume 8 Article 6 1-1-1999 Culture, Postmodernism, and Canadian Legal Hermeneutics: A Comment on Reference Re Secession of Quebec John Rice Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/djls This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Recommended Citation John Rice, "Culture, Postmodernism, and Canadian Legal Hermeneutics: A Comment on Reference Re Secession of Quebec" (1999) 8 Dal J Leg Stud 183. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Schulich Law Scholars. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies by an authorized editor of Schulich Law Scholars. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. A COMMENT ON REFERENCE RE SECESSION OF QUEBEC - 183 CULTURE, POSTMODERNISM, AND CANADIAN LEGAL HERMENEUTICS: A COMMENT ON REFERENCE RE SECESSION OF QUEBEC JoHN RICEt I. INTRODUCTION: CANADA, CULTURE, POSTMODERNITY & POWER When I was an undergraduate, I recall having heard Canada described as the world's "first postmodern state" in a history seminar. The professor who made this contention based this opinion on the fact that Canada is unlike most of the world's nation-states in that it was founded and structured to accommodate the needs and aspirations of two founding "peoples," instead of one. At the time, I was quite taken with this idea. I return to it now in order to explore and interrogate the "postmodernity" of the Canadian polity and Canadian law. In the years since that history seminar, Quebeckers have voted in a second sovereignty referendum, and I feel that I have developed a more sophisticated understanding of postmodern ideas and the (in)ability of the Canadian state to accommodate cultural difference.